I just came across an Onionesque news report about the Upper Peninsula considering becoming its own state.  My second favorite line in the article:

The idea is nothing new. Efforts to pass legislation to form a new state reportedly failed by a single vote in 1975.

Can anyone confirm this?  Does anyone remember that the UP was only one vote away from becoming its own state?  Had I known that, I would not have said all that stuff at the Denny’s in Marquette.

I distinctly remember being in the UP with my friend Brian one summer and thinking “this is most certainly Canada.”  I thought the same thing when I took a trip up there a few years back.  I thought “this is most certainly Canada.”  As it turns out, we were indeed in Canada.  That was a confusing vacation.

But my favorite line in the article is:

“The likelihood of it happening? I don’t know. But I think, privately, a lot of private citizens say, ‘Yay team. Let’s do this. It’s long overdue.’”

They already have a slogan!  “Yay team.  Let’s do this.  It’s long overdue.”  I don’t mind pointing out that this is only a few multisyllabic prepositions from becoming the new state motto.

What do we call it?  North Michigan?  South Canada?  Alaska II?  Hawaii Peninsula?   Minnesota Handle? Does the lower peninsula then become South Michigan?  Does that mean that we will now be in the south?  I have one friend that would be very upset by this, since he was from the deep south (Columbus, OH) and went to school in Michigan.

If nothing else, this would ease the tension of representing the Upper Peninsula with the “map” of our left hand, which is awkward at best.